The teacher will have students gather closely together on a carpet or small area. Teacher will then show the students a traditional bubble container with a blow stick and ask what it is. Next, a volunteer will come to the front and blow some bubbles while the teacher asks probing questions.

1. Are there any other ways to make bubbles besides using the blow stick? Can you name any?

1. Yes there are other ways to make bubbles. You can use straws. (Students will then list other possible tools like this.) Possible misconception: You can use anything round that has a hole to make a bubble.

2. Do bubbles have color? If so, why?

2. Yes, bubbles have colors. Possible Misconceptions: There is color in the soap. Or everything has a color. [Bubbles have colors because of the reflection of white light.]

Explain that there are two activities they will be doing today. The first is called bubble technology, where they will experiment with different objects to see what makes bubbles. The second is called bubble colors, where they will observe and discover the colors and patterns of bubbles.

1. What is the first thing you are going to do at your station?

2. What are you doing at the bubble technology station?

3. What are you doing at the bubble color station?

1. Blow bubbles. [Read your sign, then do what it says]

2. We try to blow bubbles. [Learn what objects allow the blowing of bubbles.]

3. We are looking at colors on the bubbles. [And also classifying the patterns.]

Divide the class into groups of four and assign them to a station. There will be three bubble color stations on one side of the room and three bubble technology stations on the other side. After twenty minutes at one station a bell will be rung and the students will switch to the other station on the other side of the room. Also I will explain the signs that are on the table that give them guided instruction. They will go to their station, read the sign aloud in unison with a partner, and do what the sign says or depicts. As the students explore, the teacher should be walking around the room, asking probing/focusing questions and offering students help.

4. What do you do when you hear the bell ring?

5. Can you use that object in a different way to make a bubble?

6. Can you tell how old a bubble is by its color?

4. Move to the station that we haven’t done yet.

5. I can wave the object in the air instead of blowing into it.

6. A bubble doesn’t have an age. It’s not alive. [A bubble’s age can be seen by the color it emits. If it is white, then it is older and probably fixing to pop.]

After thirty minutes of exploration, the students will dry off. They will return to their desks to document their findings in their personal journals for the final twenty minutes. Students can draw or write in their journals as the teacher rotates around the room asking probing questions.

1. Did the bubble have colors? If so, what colors?

2. Were you able to find how old a bubble was?

3. Did anything happen when you blew on the bubbles in the color station? Why?

1. Yes the bubble had a lot of colors. They swirled around the bubble.

2. A bubble doesn’t have an age. [A bubble’s age can be seen by the bubble turning white.]

3. The colors moved around because the air you blew on the bubble. [As the bubbles move from the air, light reflects off of the bubble differently, producing the shift in colors.]

Explain what white light is and show them a prism so that they can visually see white light in action, then relate it to the bubble colors.

4. Is white light reflected in a bubble?

4. No, because the light is white. It doesn’t have color. [Yes, white light is reflected in a bubble because white light is the spectrum of colors.]

Discuss which objects did or did not make bubbles and why.

5. What did we find is the best tool to make a bubble? Can you draw it in your journal?

6. Why do you think this bubble maker worked the best?

5. I liked the straws because you could control how big you blew a bubble by how slow or fast you blew into the straw.

6. Bubbles like wet objects and I was able to get the whole object wet. They also like for air to be able to blow into them and these objects allowed this.

As the students have seen what does and does not create a bubble, ask the students to draw/create a machine that makes a bubble big enough to carry them inside.

1. Why would your machine work?

1. I was able to make the biggest bubbles with the large wire, so I combined more wire to make a bigger opening to make a bubble.

To add real world application, the teacher could also discuss color in other objects like the rainbow.

2. Is there a similarity between a rainbow and a bubble?

2. No, a rainbow is in the sky and doesn’t have soap. [The similarity between a rainbow and a bubble is how we can see the color.]

Explain to the students that the next day we will be talking about the discoveries they have made in groups and as a class, so they need to document their findings in their journals as best as they can.

1. Were you able to document what colors you saw?

2. Can you write or draw the stages of a bubble’s age?

3. Did the bubble loose color because it was old?

1. I made this bubble then colored how I saw the patterns.

2. I made four different bubbles and showed how the bubble lost color as it got older.

3. Yes, it lost color because it got old, just like a person’s hair turns white as they get older. [The bubble turns white because the soap film is thinning and light is not reflecting off of it, so that colors can be seen.]

Also, that the teacher will be checking their journals periodically to see what they have discovered (for mastery of the performance objectives).

3. How did you draw/write, which objects made a bubble?

3. I put all the objects that couldn’t make a bubble on this page and the objects that could on this other page.